[sdiy] legalities?

[Batz Goodfortune]

Y-ellow All.
         And thanks for the thoughts and nurture on this subject. Which 
quite frankly scares the politicians out of me.

I once _Paid_ a lawyer. Or was it a tailor? Either way I was stiched up.

At 01:55 PM 1/27/05 -0800, Harry Bissell Jr wrote:
>--- Chris CROSSKEY <chris at crosskey.fslife.co.uk>
>wrote:
>
> > Doesn't matter what the disclaimer says, if you are
> > telling people to do
> > something stupid then all the "You do this at your
> > own risk" and advice
> > about what the risks are is meaningless in UK law,
> > you have a duty of care
> > as an expert to tell them not to do it....
>
>Of course the question is... if you're an expert (ie
>you published your paper) ... did you tell the person
>to do something STUPID, or not. Or could they have
>reasonably been expected to do something stupid based
>on your information.
>
>If you tell someone (for example) "Always remove the
>bullets from your gun before cleaning it" you are
>quite
>safe if they DON'T follow your advise.

I guess this is at the heart of my concerns. By telling people how to open 
up and modify a switch mode, I'm already, technically, telling people to do 
something stupid. It could be argued that this kind of person only pollutes 
the gene pool and that I was doing humanity a favor but then that comes 
into conflict with the prime directive. Which when translated from legalize 
is basically. "Never give a sucker and even break."

I have disclaimers all over the place so far. Almost literally as "Boiler 
Plates." Including, but not limited to, a warning not to stick one's sex 
organs in a blender and turn it on. Although I sincerely hope someone DOES 
do that because I could use a good laugh.

I'm also concerned that, being ADD, I'm likely to overlook something 
otherwise obvious and leave myself wide open. I guess I could disclaim for 
that as well. But when I wrote the disclaimers and the pre-amble text, my 
concern wasn't that I might get sued but that I really didn't want anyone 
to injure or killer themselves. Or anyone else.

A curious thing I noticed was that of all the so-called projects concerning 
the conversion of old computer power supplies, all of them consisted simply 
of soldering a bleed resistor across the 5 volt line for loading. Such that 
one could get a clean 12 volts at about 4 amps. I'm contending a variable 
supply of between +/-1.2 volts and +/-25 volts at up to 20 amps. You can 
imagine the extent of the modification and testing required as compared.

So it sounds more like Harry's second scenario rather than the first. Wise 
people would know better than to play with this shit. Since when have I 
been wise? But then as John Cleese once said. "I may be an idiot but I'm no 
fool."

I can see that I'm seriously going to have to re-configure this project's 
verbage. The other thing is that, were I doing this project again now, I 
would in fact tackle it another way. But I want to present it as is because 
it demonstrates the principals better. (and I don't want to do a mark II 
right now.) I'm figuring now that if I present this as research and not as 
something you should actually do, then I'm not actually telling anyone to 
do anything. If they do then it's something THEY did not something I 
suggested. Does this sound reasonable?

Just out of interest, apparently, statistically speaking per capita, 
Australia is more litigious than the US. Which surprised me but the place 
IS full of rednecks and the lawyers who prey on them.

One particular law site worth a mention would be this.

http://www.lectlaw.com

Highly amusing. I thought it was a parody site but apparently not. It's 
just some bunch of lawyer's sense of humor. So I'll leave you with a quote 
from the site. Those of religious and/or prudish constitutions should look 
away now lest they blush. And apologies in advance to Chris' dad. Although 
it WAS a lawyer who told this...

A Woman went to her doctor somewhat worried. She said.

"Doctor. I can't get pregnant if I have anal sex can I?"

The doctor turned and said. "Of course you can dear. Where do you think 
lawyers come from?"

Thanks again all. I'll throw another gold fish on the barbie.

Be absolutely Icebox.

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